Peter Hunt (literary critic)
Encyclopedia
Peter Hunt is a British scholar who is Professor Emeritus in Children's Literature at Cardiff University
.
Hunt's books include works of criticism, novels, and stories for younger children. The Children's Literature courses that he ran at Cardiff were the first to treat children's literature as a subject of academic study in the UK. He has lectured on the subject at over 120 universities in 20 countries, from Finland to New Zealand; the International Society for the Fantastic in the Arts presented him with its Distinguished Scholarship Award in 1995, and 2003 he won the International Brothers Grimm Award for services to children's literature from the Institute for Children's Literature, Osaka
.
He has edited or is editing the Oxford University Press
World's Classics editions of Bevis, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
, and The Wind in the Willows
. His books have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Persian, Greek, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese.
is the period of life which the immediate culture thinks of as being free of responsibility and susceptible to education." Although Hunt never neatly answers the questions he posed in the Preface, he does make some progress when he discerns that "children's literature is obviously what people think it is," and is content to leave it at that while he flutters through time from the 18th century onward.
authors: Ursula K. Le Guin
, Terry Pratchett
, and Philip Pullman
. These authors, he argues, "have absorbed the past of fantasy, they move it on in new directions, and they are formidably intelligent." Here, Hunt insists that worthwhile fantasy (like Children's Literature) should be taken seriously, claiming that "it is useful to take the three most common (if not the most damning) of opinions – that fantasy is formulaic, childish, and escapist, to see if they can be sustained – remembering that the one thing that can rarely be said of fantasy is that it has nothing to do with reality." This book is actually a complete departure from Hunt's usual concern of defining children's literature, and possibly suggests a change in what subject matter he will choose to study in the future.
Cardiff University
Cardiff University is a leading research university located in the Cathays Park area of Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. It received its Royal charter in 1883 and is a member of the Russell Group of Universities. The university is consistently recognised as providing high quality research-based...
.
Hunt's books include works of criticism, novels, and stories for younger children. The Children's Literature courses that he ran at Cardiff were the first to treat children's literature as a subject of academic study in the UK. He has lectured on the subject at over 120 universities in 20 countries, from Finland to New Zealand; the International Society for the Fantastic in the Arts presented him with its Distinguished Scholarship Award in 1995, and 2003 he won the International Brothers Grimm Award for services to children's literature from the Institute for Children's Literature, Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
.
He has edited or is editing the Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
World's Classics editions of Bevis, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...
, and The Wind in the Willows
The Wind in the Willows
The Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animal characters in a pastoral version of England...
. His books have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Persian, Greek, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese.
An Introduction to Children's Literature
An Introduction to Children's Literature (1994) begins in the Preface by asking essential questions about children's literature: "what is it, how is it used, how can we approach it, [and] how the study of it has developed." Yet almost immediately Hunt finds himself struggling with the first question, noting that books 'written for' children are sometimes only understandable by adults, or are much more appreciated by adults (such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), while books 'read by' children could potentially include any book which exists (for "surely sometime, somewhere, all books have been read by one child or another?") Joined with this is the difficulty of defining 'children', although Hunt soon gives a satisfactory definition: "[C]hildhoodChildhood
Childhood is the age span ranging from birth to adolescence. In developmental psychology, childhood is divided up into the developmental stages of toddlerhood , early childhood , middle childhood , and adolescence .- Age ranges of childhood :The term childhood is non-specific and can imply a...
is the period of life which the immediate culture thinks of as being free of responsibility and susceptible to education." Although Hunt never neatly answers the questions he posed in the Preface, he does make some progress when he discerns that "children's literature is obviously what people think it is," and is content to leave it at that while he flutters through time from the 18th century onward.
Children's Literature: An Illustrated History
A year after publishing An Introduction to Children's Literature, Hunt once again attempted to encapsulate the history of Children's Literature, this time as an editor, piecing together other authors' attitudes of books written for children since the 18th century. Once again, he discovered that there were three primary difficulties which made the History of Children's Literature unclear:- Many children's books have been read by children so many times that the book has literally been tattered to shreds throughout time.
- Nobody quite knows what constitutes Children's Literature.
- The concept of childhood has shifted throughout history ("It takes a considerable mental leap to remember that the innocent schoolgirl intrigues of Angela BrazilAngela BrazilAngela Brazil was one of the first British writers of "modern schoolgirls' stories", written from the characters' point of view and intended primarily as entertainment rather than moral instruction. In the first half of the twentieth century she published nearly 50 books of girls' fiction, the...
or Enid BlytonEnid BlytonEnid Blyton was an English children's writer also known as Mary Pollock.Noted for numerous series of books based on recurring characters and designed for different age groups,her books have enjoyed huge success in many parts of the world, and have sold over 600 million copies.One of Blyton's most...
in the 1940s were designed for the same age group as the sexually active and angst-ridden teenagers of Judy BlumeJudy BlumeJudy Blume is an American author. She has written many novels for children and young adults which have exceeded sales of 80 million and been translated into 31 languages...
in the 1970s.").
Alternative Worlds in Fantasy Fiction
In Alternative Worlds in Fantasy Fiction, Hunt (with Millicent Lenz) studies three modern fantasyFantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
authors: Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...
, Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
, and Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman CBE, FRSL is an English writer from Norwich. He is the best-selling author of several books, most notably his trilogy of fantasy novels, His Dark Materials, and his fictionalised biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ...
. These authors, he argues, "have absorbed the past of fantasy, they move it on in new directions, and they are formidably intelligent." Here, Hunt insists that worthwhile fantasy (like Children's Literature) should be taken seriously, claiming that "it is useful to take the three most common (if not the most damning) of opinions – that fantasy is formulaic, childish, and escapist, to see if they can be sustained – remembering that the one thing that can rarely be said of fantasy is that it has nothing to do with reality." This book is actually a complete departure from Hunt's usual concern of defining children's literature, and possibly suggests a change in what subject matter he will choose to study in the future.